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God's Original Intention / Wilderness /
CONT'D...
In the midst of the growing darkness around the globe, the places where the harvest is multiplying the most is in places where they understand the Gospel of the Kingdom, where they understand about meaningful relationships and relational discipleship, and because of the strong relationships also have a strong support base/community to encourage them through the tough times and assist them in ministering to the many God is bringing into the 'nets'.
We have traditionally tended to think that we would become disciples and disciplers if we had the right head knowledge - and have leaned heavily on that, in our churches, Bible colleges/seminaries, etc. This is not to put down our traditional training because that is where we have been at and God has certainly used this, but how much of our Bible schools/seminaries focused on character, or more importantly, on loving God first and others second? Although I'm sure that has been the intention, for the most part, it is hard, if not nigh unto impossible? to develop those aspects through a largely academic training module.
How much one-on-one discipleship and small-group intimate fellowship and loving MUTUAL accountability has there really been IN COMMUNITY? How much have our relationships impacted those that we're discipling throughout the week in other aspects of life than just being at church or Bible studies together where we don't really get to know each other all that well for a few short hours a week? Or how much have our lives been impacted by those that we are receiving spiritual nourishment from?
I believe that God is waking up many in the Body in these days to the fact that in order to effectively pass on to those around us the Life of Jesus, and for us/them to become DISCIPLES WHO WILL DISCIPLE OTHERS, we need to have relationships which are MUCH DEEPER than we are used to, and which are biblically-holistic and are lived out in every aspect of life, and I believe we need to see Christianity in our lives be FAR MORE than the head knowledge we've received so abundantly over the years! The Bible says that if we are hearers and not doers, we deceive ourselves. So often we have been hearing the Word and hearing the Word and hearing the Word, but, like in Bible college, there haven't seemed to be too many places, in our traditional thinking, to LIVE it, and so we have often become stagnant or spiritually sick...and, unfortunately, have often become deceived in certain areas. I have experienced this in my own life, as well, and am so grateful to the Lord that He faithfully reveals the deceptions in our hearts/minds that need to be replaced by His truth/renewed by His Word as we meditate on His Word and let Him teach/counsel us through it. If we ask Him to expose the deception, He will do it and enable us to see it replaced with His truth, which then SETS US FREE from various areas of bondages in our lives.
ANYWAYS, Jesus said He wants us to make DISCIPLES (HIS kind of whole-hearted, total-life disciples who were passionate about Him)!! of ALL NATIONS, and that we're to teach them to obey EVERYTHING that He commanded. I believe this type of total-life discipleship is crucial and integral to His Kingdom Life!!
I understand from some missionaries that many Mu*sl*im*s and people of other religions, especially those involved in the spirit world/witchcraft, etc., do not tend to really grasp onto the reality of the Christian life until they understand the Gospel of the KINGDOM - that Jesus is the King of Kings and has dominion over the darkness, etc. Because it's fear that keeps them in slavery to their other gods, once they realize that Jesus the King has defeated Satan, (they understand a lot about the kingdom of darkness and the slavery there), they are able to experience the GOOD NEWS which sets them free to live in the Kingdom of Light! Many peoples in eastern nations readily understand the concept of kings and kingdoms, anyway, and so I think can often find it easier to accept the GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM than our democratic mindsets which are deeply ingrained into our hearts as well.
So again, what is the GOOD NEWS? The GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM? Part of a successful Kingdom ruled by an effective King (who in our case happens to be the Sovereign God of the Universe) is that the King, His Kingdom and His Kingdom citizens reflect His GOODNESS and His CHARACTER - wherever the Kingdom is lived out through us...and so if the Kingdom of God is within us, it should be evident in/through us WHEREVER WE ARE, AT ALL TIMES. Now that's real living!
It also means being His spiritual army, which He is raising up in these days and waking from her spiritual slumber.
If we're honest, the Church in general doesn't look toooo much like that, for the most part, yet - but PTL we are in PROCESS and HE will COMPLETE the GOOD WORK HE began in us as we continue to fix our hearts and eyes/minds on Him! And HE is working in us to will and to do His good pleasure! THANK YOU JESUS! What hope this can give us when we look around and see the darkness getting darker...but in the increasing darkness God is also causing His Light to become brighter!!
How important is this Kingdom of God? What is God's will??
Matt.6: 9"This, then, is how you should pray: " 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
As mentioned earlier, this prayer is beginning to revolutionize my life! Although this won't all be accomplished in it's entirety before He sets up His Kingdom on earth, it is His desire for us to cooperate with Him in this and move towards it - after all, this is our training school here and now to prepare and equip us to reign and rule with Him!
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The outworking of God's ORIGINAL INTENTION for us and His creation has been badly marred, as we have seen since the fall of man, but Jesus is our REDEEMER, and His heart is for RESTORATION, as we see in many places throughout Scripture, such as in Isaiah 61: 4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.", so we can have hope in our GOD OF HOPE in these days!
Here are some more Scriptures to show His heart in this regard - (there are many more)...All Scriptures mentioned in this update are from the NIV.
Col. 1:19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself ALL THINGS, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Eph 1: 10to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring ALL THINGS in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
Has this happened yet? Yes and no....the now and the not yet...although it is finished in the heavenlies, the outworking of it is still very much in process and not nearly complete! Some is being restored now, other aspects will be restored when we see Jesus or after His second coming.
Eph 4: 11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13UNTIL WE ALL REACH UNITY IN THE FAITH AND IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD AND BECOME MATURE ATTAINING TO THE WHOLE MEASURE OF THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST. 14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in ALL THINGS grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Has this happened yet?!!
His Word says He has made us to be KINGS and PRIESTS - for most of us, especially in the West, we don't know much about what it means to be in a Kingdom or how to treat a King, etc. We don't know much about the authority and power of a King - Do we really know Jesus as our King? The King of Kings? I know I have a looong way to go in that!! But in order for us to begin to learn to live out our Jesus-bought roles as His kings and priests, we need to know Him in these ways before we can reflect that in and through our lives. (2 Cor. 3: 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect[1] the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.)
This is part of what He's preparing us for as His Kingdom citizens - kings and priests, and our time on earth is our time to become equipped and trained and to practice for what lies ahead:
Ps.2: 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.
Are we ready to rule and reign with Him?
Eph 3: 10His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms…"
How will that happen? It will happen more and more the more we cooperate with God's process of restoration in our lives! This is part of our inheritance as His children, princes and princesses!
Eph 1:5 [1] In love He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will--
1 John 3: 1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
Rom.8:17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Romans 8: 18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that[9] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
How do we get to where God is taking us in terms of the Kingdom of God? Yes, we are and have been a part of the Kingdom of God since we were 'born again' into His Kingdom of Light, but how do we increasingly live in the reality of it?
I believe that part of the transition that we are going through in these days is that God is doing the following in our lives - He is uprooting foundations in our lives which have been built on something other than Jesus Christ, the True Foundation..He has found that the 'plumbline' is not plumb - BUT - the PURPOSE is so that then He can BUILD and PLANT on the TRUE FOUNDATION. (Here's a poem I wrote about this a year or so ago)
Jer 1: 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."
So how does this happen?
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One of the Scriptures which He has been drilling into me the past months is the one in Eph 3 where it says that He wants us to KNOW (intimately) His looooooooong, hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh, deeeeep, wiiiiiiiiiiiiiide love for us -.WHY??? SO THAT - ..we may be FILLED to the measure of ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD!!!!!! Therefore, it is not selfish for us to ask for God to give us that intimate understanding and knowledge of His incredible, multi-faceted love for us, because THAT IS HIS WILL FOR US - SO THAT we may be FILLED to the MEASURE of ALL the FULLNESS OF GOD!! Which, I believe, means that in order to truly love Him, to truly glorify Him, and in order to truly be able to reflect Him and carry His Presence into our world, we NEED to know that incredible love!!! We love Him BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US. The more we deeply know His love for us, the more we are ABLE to love HIM and others. The more we love others, the more His Living Water can flow out of us unhindered...
One of my favourite quotes: "GOD IS MOST GLORIFIED IN US WHEN WE ARE MOST SATISFIED IN HIM! - John Piper
I have recently been listening to a tape series on the NAMES OF GOD - Pagan religions have gods for this and gods for that (weather, crops, health, finances, relationships, etc. etc.), but our God is ALL IN ALL - He has it all!! He is everything we need!! Apparently the name JEHOVAH basically communicates that meaning - God was basically saying My Name is I AM, because I AM the answer to all of your needs - I AM the Provision for ALL OF YOUR NEEDS...He WANTS us to be satisfied in HIM - when we aren't, we try to find other things/people to meet those needs and they become idols in our lives, and as we allow these idols to remain in our lives, our disobedience to God in this brings destruction into our lives as a result...BUT as we DELIGHT OURSELVES IN THE LORD, HE WILL GIVE US THE DESIRES OF OUR HEART. (Ps. 37:4)
It is this process of God stripping us of the idols in our lives which He brings us through when we are seeking to become more intimate with Him - It is the DESERT / WILDERNESS experience! A horrendously painful and very confusing time, often, where He leads us through a process of recognizing the lies of the enemy that we have believed and to needing to repent of believing the lies instead of His TRUTH, and of repenting of/renouncing our actions which came as a result of the deceptions. Since if we acted according to lies instead of His Truth, we were, in essence, rebelling against Him) And so there is much repentance in these times, etc., but (His Word says that HIS KINDNESS LEADS US TO REPENTANCE (amen!!!)) it is sooo needed if we are to become fruitful in the Kingdom of God, and if we want to truly become intimate with Him! (Some articles and resources to help encourage you in your wilderness/es) Thankfully He also includes good times in the midst of the desert and reveals His love to us in ways we never knew or understood it before!!! It also includes times of His deeply ministering affirmations of our value to Him!
Hosea 2:13ff says: 14 "Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. 15 There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor [1] (trouble) a door of hope. There she will sing [2] as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. - (NIV)
Amazing as it seems, He is wooing us into deeper intimacy with Himself in the wilderness, where we have nothing but HIM. We're in good company when we go through these times -Jesus also went through it, so did Moses, Paul, etc.
Part of the desert experience, I believe, also includes the following:
It is the ISAIAH 6 PRINCIPLE - (which I am borrowing from Colin Harbinson) If God is going to use us to reach out to a lost world around us, He has to work in us, in those very areas, where He wants to touch those around us. Otherwise those unhealed, unrepented of areas of our lives will affect those around us, but not as God intends! So we need to be cleansed in those areas, and I believe a big part of the wilderness experience is the process of going through this, so that He can, indeed, flow through us as HE desires, in an unhindered way!
Is. 6: 5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
Here's a song I wrote while going through
one of my long wilderness times at one point:
My Only Compass
is You
Maybe these will help in your wilderness,
too, since we often feel, during these times, like God has forgotten us on a
shelf somewhere...
+ The Process
of Seeing Our Visions Becoming Reality
+ Some Thoughts
to Consider in Taking Steps of Faith Towards the vision You Believe God has
Put on Your Heart
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